ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Mumbai’s middle-class citizen movements and spatial politics. The control and cleanliness of public space have long been major sources of controversy in urban India, as conflict over congested and filthy public spaces has been prominent since at least the colonial era. In other words, spatial negotiation is embedded in the ongoing formation and development of the Indian city, especially Bombay/Mumbai. Drawing on the literature and my own fieldwork with Mumbai activists, this chapter reveals an important aspect of South Asian sociality as the field of negotiation among different and often conflicting values. Moreover, it suggests a perspective for considering different ways of being diverse and coexisting with the “other.”
